Language Politics and National Identity in Malawi

Abstract

With the attainment of independence, African countries tended to create new language policies different from their colonial masters' where possible. In most instances the purpose was ostensibly to forge new national identities symbolised by new flags and new anthems. Above all, most of these countries created national languages that would bring about new cultures and traditions largely for nation-building purposes. This article examines language policy statements from post-colonial Malawi to the present. The central thrust of the article is the choice and use of language in the country's political quest for national integration and identity, and how this has impacted on the formulation of language policies in Malawi. It argues, by means of evidence, that attempts to create such a national identity has failed to bring about a common national culture and tradition in Malawi. This is a result of the confusion in language policy statements and the actual practice on the ground that illustrates the continued English-Chinyanja diglossic hegemony that continues to reign. Banda's mindset is still in place, even in a new democratic era in which the status of indigenous languages in the national life, in early education and in the media is vague, undefined and thus not functional in mass communication. This is in a country in which more than 60% of the population is illiterate, with hardly any access to knowledge in its own indigenous languages and in which the majority of the population (80%) lives in rural communities (Osman, 1994).